Deadly lake turns animals into statues

[dipsydoodle]

ACCORDING to Dante, the Styx is not just a river but a vast, deathly swamp filling the entire fifth circle of hell. Perhaps the staff of New Scientist will see it when our time comes but, until then, Lake Natron in northern Tanzania does a pretty good job of illustrating Dante's vision.

Unless you are an alkaline tilapia (Alcolapia alcalica) – an extremophile fish adapted to the harsh conditions – it is not the best place to live. Temperatures in the lake can reach 60 °C, and its alkalinity is between pH 9 and pH 10.5.

The lake takes its name from natron, a naturally occurring compound made mainly of sodium carbonate, with a bit of baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) thrown in. Here, this has come from volcanic ash, accumulated from the Great Rift valley. Animals that become immersed in the water die and are calcified.

Photographer Nick Brandt, who has a long association with east Africa – he directed the video for Michael Jackson's Earth Song there in 1995 – took a detour from his usual work when he discovered perfectly preserved birds and bats on the shoreline. "I could not help but photograph them," he says. "No one knows for certain exactly how they die, but it appears that the extreme reflective nature of the lake's surface confuses them, and like birds crashing into plate glass windows, they crash into the lake."

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21929360.100-deadly-lake-turns-animals-into-statues.html#.UkwIu1NjGzn

[eppur_se_muova]

1. I believe flamingos feed and even nest in alkali lakes -- they are safe from most predators there.

This species feeds primarily on Spirulina, algae which grow only in very alkaline lakes. Presence of flamingo herds near water bodies is indication of sodic alkaline water which is not suitable for irrigation use.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lesser_Flamingo

But if they happen to die there, yes, their bodies are mummified. Natron was, in fact, used by the ancient Egyptians in their mummification process, albeit in a different fashion.

The emptied body was then covered in natron, to speed up the process of dehydration and prevent decomposition. Natron dries the body up faster than desert sand, preserving the body more effectively.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mummy#The_Egyptian_mummification_process

The main effect of natron in solution would be to hydrolyze fats to soaps; this inhibits putrefaction. Hydrolysis of proteins would occur much more slowly.

[whopis01]

2. I was wondering how they died in those positions - until I read that the photographer posed them.n/t

[frylock]

3. amazing photo. looks like an album cover.

[porkified]

4. BP can beat that!

Hey how bout a field trip for the tea party!

[niyad]

5. thank you for posting this

[tomm2thumbs]

6. "The animals are all arranged in poses by the photographer."

That quote was from the link.

I was wondering because it seemed a little out of reason that they animals died in those positions